Trends in Ed: Google Backs Contest to Find Best Tax Infographic

In partnership with Google, New York art and technology center Eyebeam has launched a contest to find the best data visualization of taxes. The Data Viz Challenge, as it’s called, asks designers and developers to use data from the site WhatWePayFor.com and create an infographic that shows how these tax dollars are spent. The winner will receive $5,000 and coverage on various websites.

Google will also collaborate with Cornell University’s researchers to study what makes online social networks tick. The work will be supported by a grant of $800,000 from Google Inc. Challenges such as “most social networking systems create links between people, but the links lack important levels of detail,” will be addressed and improved.